Rules of Civility - Amor Towles

“If we only fell in love with people who were perfect for us...then there wouldn't be so much fuss about love in the first place.”

On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar with her boardinghouse roommate stretching three dollars as far as it will go when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker with royal blue eyes and a tempered smile, happens to sit at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a yearlong journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool toward the upper echelons of New York society and the executive suites of Condé Nast--rarefied environs where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve. 

Wooed in turn by a shy, principled multi-millionaire and an irrepressible Upper East Side ne'er-do-well, befriended by a single-minded widow who is a ahead of her time,and challenged by an imperious mentor, Katey experiences firsthand the poise secured by wealth and station and the failed aspirations that reside just below the surface. Even as she waits for circumstances to bring Tinker back into her life, she begins to realize how our most promising choices inevitably lay the groundwork for our regrets.

From the moment I started reading it I was taken back to 1930's New York and saw the world through the eyes of the unlikely heroine Katey Kontent. She was classy yet rebellious, strong yet not pushy. 

The writing style really made apparent the difference between 'someone who writes a book' and 'someone who is a writer'. Amor is definitely the latter and I was often so engrossed in the story that I forgot I was on public transport on my way to work!

The storyline was meandered along but I never felt like it was moving too slowly, and not once did I ever pick what was going to happen yet.

This book is rating so highly for a reason, so do yourself a favour and check it out!